Frisco Fire Chief Mack Borchardt places high value on character, integrity and work ethic

by Minnie Payne

FRISCO — Mack Borchardt, 59-year-old Frisco Fire Chief, started to work as a Frisco volunteer firefighter in the early 1970s.

“The city was recruiting volunteer firefighters, and I was attracted to that,” he said. “I felt I should give something back to the community.

“Not too long after becoming a volunteer firefighter, I fell in love with it in 1973.”

If one is looking to join the Frisco Fire Department, aside from being physically fit, Borchardt places a high value on character, integrity, work ethic, and motivation.

Borchardt graduated from Frisco High School with 31 other students in 1966 and attended Grayson County College two years and East Texas State University a year. He completed the Richardson Fire Academy in 1979.

“As a child, I wanted to grow up to be a farmer,” he said. “My family owned a 160-acre farm five miles from Frisco which we tended until my father’s health deteriorated and mom, who taught school, leased it to other farmers.

“I worked for the other farmers.”

In February 1979, Borchardt was named chief of Frisco Volunteer Fire Department and later that year began working full time for McKinney Fire Department while remaining volunteer fire chief in Frisco.

“I was a volunteer [firefighter] in Frisco on the days that I didn’t work in McKinney,” he said. “It’s fairly typical for small towns to have a firefighter covering two posts.”

To make a living while he was serving as a volunteer firefighter, Borchardt owned and operated a Maytag appliance and air conditioning business on Main Street in Frisco.

In 1981, he left McKinney to assume full-time duties as a paid Frisco City Administrator/Volunteer Fire Chief. City administrator duties were to function as an administrative assistant to the mayor.

“At that time, Frisco did not have a city manager, so the mayor was much more involved in the day to day decisions of the city,” Borchardt said. “As a city administrator, I was paid to assist with details in any way I could.

“The job would almost equate to a department head in the city today.”

He said that at the time the city hired him, he was told that when a city manager was in place, he would become a full-time paid fire chief, which took place in 1987 following the hiring of Frisco City Manager George Purefoy.

The most challenging thing that the fire department presently faces is growth, he said, which is a relished challenge.

“We are fortunate to have a community that sets high standards and has very high expectations,” he said. “The staff at city hall follows those guidelines, and I believe that sets the personality of the entire city.”

The fact that the fire department staff is young and started in Frisco gives them more openness to new ideas, he said.

“Maybe it’s a combination of dedication, innovativeness and an interest in exploring new ideas that makes them quality firefighters,” said Borchardt.

A college degree is not required to be a firefighter, he said, but fire certification is required. All firefighters have 2,500 to 3,000 clock hours of education.

“We have incentive pay for paramedic certification, and we are fortunate that the city encourages degrees through tuition reimbursement and education pay,” he said. “Many who do not have degrees are in college classes right now.

“We have a number of staff members with master’s degrees in business management.”

The most common level of certification, before going to officer ranks, is firefighter/paramedic and the starting salary is close to $50,000, topping out at around $60,000, said Borchardt.

The fire department 2007-2008 budget is $15,720,507 for 154 total authorized positions.

Borchardt said that firefighters are able to solve people’s problems in that they put out fires and perform medical treatment.

“In our case, the quicker we get to a fire or accident, the better,” he said. “Public safety officers in any field are accountable for providing professional and efficient services in emergencies.”

He believes that the Frisco Fire Department is made up of talented people and communicates to citizens that they are well trained in handling emergencies.

“Peace of mind has value, and I think that we convey that to folks,” he said. “A short while back we had a fire at a manufacturing company where chemicals were involved and our firefighters were there all day doing what was expected of them.

“I like the fact that we don’t mind being human with our community.”

Frisco Fire Safety Town, a facility for school-age children and part of the public education division of the Frisco Fire Department, opened January 2007 and was Borchardt’s idea. The facility is located adjacent to the new Central Fire Station at 8601 Gary Burns Drive and offers school year programs free of charge to students in kindergarten through fifth grades. Summer classes are also offered.

According to Gwinn McConnell, educator for the school, Frisco Fire Safety Town came to be as part of a bond package and is also supported by funds from various businesses. In 2007, 38,000 children took advantage of the facility and thus far in 2008, 60,000 children have been served.

Borchardt and his wife, Allison, have been married 11 years and have two children, Alexa, eight, and McKenzie, seven. A daughter, Jenny, 35, and a son, Wes, 30, are from a previous marriage. They have two grandchildren.

“There is very little difference in Mack’s dedication to the city of Frisco, the fire department and his family,” said Allison.